90# on your telephone

[GrammyKathy]

(l checked out Snopes.com.. This is true, and also applies to cell
phones!)

PASS ON TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW

I received a telephone call last evening from an individual
identifying himself as an AT&T Service Technician (could also be
Telus) who was conducting a test on the telephone lines. He stated
that to complete the test I should touch nine(9), zero(0), the pound
sign (#), and then hang up. Luckily, I was suspicious and refused.
Upon contacting the telephone company, I was informed that by pushing
90#, you give the requesting individual full access to your telephone
line, which enables them to place long distance calls billed to your
home phone number.

I was further informed that this scam has been originating from many
local jails/prisons DO NOT press 90# for ANYONE.

The GTE Security Department requested that I share this information
with EVERYONE I KNOW.

After checking with Verizon they also said it was true, so do not dial
90# for anyone !!!!! PLEASE HIT THAT FORWARD BUTTON AND PASS THIS ON
TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!!

[ginny]

Any email that says: "PLEASE HIT THAT FORWARD BUTTON AND PASS THIS ON
> TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!!" is usually junk -as is this.

Snopes actually says this only applies to PBX phone systems, NOT
residential or cell phones.

To be ON topic, I am actually taking a break from putting away
Christmas stuff, so I can set up my dining room table as Machine-
Quilting Central, and start attacking that huge stack of tops.

Ginny in snowy Vermont, waiting for 12" more today

[Megan Zurawicz]

Um, no. It's an urban legend in the form that it's circulated, and is only
partially true, in a very limited circumstance that doesn't affect most of
the folks who receive this email.

It does NOT apply to cell phones at all, and ONLY applies to business phones
which require that you dial 9 to access an outside line: centrex switchboard
systems have the capacity to transfer someone to an outside line, and that's
what that does. Your home phone (or cell phone) IS an "outside line", it
can't be anything else, and you can't transfer someone to it.

Which is clearly stated both at snopes and at urbanlegends.com.

The big neon sign that says "urban legend" to this?

> The GTE Security Department requested that I share this information
> with EVERYONE I KNOW.
>
> After checking with Verizon they also said it was true, so do not dial
> 90# for anyone !!!!! PLEASE HIT THAT FORWARD BUTTON AND PASS THIS ON
> TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!!

Corporations do not 'request' that enquirers share whatever information
they've asked for with "EVERYONE THEY KNOW". In well over a decade online,
now, I have yet to see a *single* email that insists (on whatever authority)
that you share it with "everyone you know" that wasn't false.

Not one, in 14 years. And honestly, I don't expect to ever see one.

--pig

[Bronnie]

Couldn't agree with you more.....people are vulnerable via email when
they read those requests. It's flooding inboxes with useless junk
mail. Hit the DEL key not the FWD.
Bronnie

[Julia in MN]

And if it says it's been checked with Snopes, don't believe it unless
you verify it yourself. Some of the hoaxers are on to the fact that some
people do check Snopes and try to make you think their story has been
verified.

Julia in MN

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[Bonnie Patterson]

On another note, I once worked for a large organization/wide spread,
we could dial the three digit phone code for any of the branches then
"9" to get an outside line, doing so eliminated long distance charges
to our office/desk phone. Some would dial a branch and page themselves
as a joke, branch manager would sometimes get angry that someone was
on site without signing in.